Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent August Challenge

While one theme for August at Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent is Frame-it, the other is Anything Goes as long as you have included recycled product(s) on your project. That was all I needed to hear to go wild and crazy! I often have a lot of things in the works on my craft table and my lists tend to get buried in the piles. For example, right now I am working on an atc swap where each person picks the theme for the atc you create for them. I usually try to keep my list on a clipboard so that I can stand it up and not lose it in the creative chaos. The clipboard I use is functional but not funky. ZZzzzzz! I had an ugly old one in the basement that had potential for altering so I hauled it upstairs and let my imagination go.

On the recycled clipboard, I first applied recycled book paper from an old children's book with gel medium. I gessoed over that and then broke out my Neocolor II crayons to colour the background. Then I did my usual messy play to create a background using pan pastels, ink, stencils, punchinella, anything that would create texture. I really don't overthink that part, working quickly and just enjoying the process.

Then I started colouring images from CS Designs to create this fun scene. I actually used six (count 'em) designs for this collage. I wanted something fun to look at when the clipboard was empty... to motivate me to clear up my to-do list. I used my Prismacolor pencils to colour Arabesque, the dancer; Splendour in the Curled Grass; the trees from the Striped Forest collection,; the face from Celestial Goddess; and the Striped circular petal frame for the sun's rays. The sentiment also came from the Striped Forest collection and was mounted on a torn scrap of black packaging. So much fun! I fussy cut them and glued them down with more gel-medium.

I finished off the piece with lots of messy doodling, a little bling on the sun and Arabesque, a recycled button  that became a snail, some zigzag border, a metal play sticker, and some fibres for the hole in the clip. A couple of coats of sealer ensured that everything would stay in place and all watercolour would no longer react to moisture. So fun and quite a change from it's former self. Now this clipboard fits in with the rest of the room and is something I enjoy using. Win-win!

Be sure to check out the other amazing projects from the rest of the design team. They are sure to inspire you to create something wonderful with your recycled bits whether you decide to Frame It or play with Anything Goes. Can't wait to see what you come up with :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie